A/N: Please read this note, would you kindly?
Just about done for this month; updates are on schedule for the most part.
Hopefully the doctor will have good news for me today.
In any case, this story's probably reaching its zenith soon. Not because I wanted to, but alas, my hand's been forced.. Real shame; I had three more arcs planned out, but folks just don't seem to be behind slow burn stories these days. Ah, well.
Guess we're pulling out the ace early. Won't say what it is. You'll have read and see.
Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this story, and others. If folks don't like this, it won't be continued. Meaning that if the story itself ain't popular? Well, it ends. I'm working two jobs -might need a third soon!- so I barely have time to write; as such, I cannot afford to write something folks don't enjoy. So by all means, speak up! Your voice matters! Make yourself heard! As ever, reviews are the fuel that sustain me. Without them I cannot write a single word. Simple as that. Working nearly all hours of the day keep me absurdly busy, and I can't bring myself to write something folks don't like.
No questions to answer this time. What's the point? If I try to answer them now, I'll just get angry. No one wants that.
As ever, I own no references, quotes, memes or themes. Not a wit or a one. They're just references.
I'm just a humble author trying to make his way in this wild world, one word at a time.
Chapter title hails from the now infamous song, Hail to the King.
"It hurts, doesn't it? Knowing you tried so hard...
...that you got so far...but in the end, it never even mattered.
You're already standing on the edge, Miquella. You just don't realize it.
~?
Hail to the King
His nephew had come to visit.
Truly, it came as something of a surprise to Malekith; if only because that made two visits to his domain in as many days, now. He'd not had this many visitors since he'd come to this land. Not since he'd first sequestered himself here, away from Marika, away from the capital, away from all of it. The gargoyles warded off all who would dare approach.
Still, here the boy was. He found it a pleasant change.
He had his eyes and ears in the capital, even after all these years; he knew young Miquella was the inquisitive sort, but he hadn't thought the boy would go so far as to seek him out here, of all places. There was a reason he'd chosen to hide himself away in the Beast Sanctum, after all. Not just at Marika's request, but because few could make their way here unharmed in the first place. The hidden paths were not known to many, and those who did had long since been sworn to silence.
Yet somehow the boy found him. How he'd wriggled his way in was anyone's guess.
Still, he was glad for the company. His was a lonely duty after all; to guard Destined Death was no easy task.
Which in turn begged the question, one that had been gnawing at the old wolf for the last minute: "Why are you here, little Miquella?
The boy grinned and plonked down beside him, tucking his little knees into his chest.." ...wanted to ask you something."
"Oh?" He had an inkling as to what. Best not to reveal his hand just yet. "And what might that be?"
Pale eyes met his. "Can gods die?"
Aha! Just as he'd thought.
"You're here about Rykard and Morgott, then."
A bob of his head. "The funeral's today. Took a week to get things ready."
Malekith grunted. He couldn't find the right words to say, not in the face of such sorrow. They should not have died. He wasn't sure how they had. Destined Death was safe with him, sealed within his blade as always, and as it always would be. Hearty and whole. No fragments were missing; he would've known if they were.
"You're coming, by the way."
"Am I, now?" he rasped a laugh. Marika would never allow him within three feet of her, but he appreciated the sentiment. "Surely that's not the only reason you came by to visit this old wolf...
Miquella looked down. "I want to see if I can "kill" the rot in Malenia. Without killing her."
And now they came to the crux of the matter.
Malekith fell silent for a long moment, marshaling the tattered threads of his thoughts. He knew the unspoken request for what it was. Miquella's concern for his twin was well known. D had been thorough in his last report. The boy had researched everything he could, desperate to find a cure. He was close to a breakthrough certainly, but such determination had oft proven the ruin of minds greater than he. If he faltered...the Golden Order might well have a monster on its hands.
At length, the old wolf sighed and levered himself upright.
...your shadow speaks well of you. You would do anything for your sister," his tone was soft, almost contemplative. "Just as I would do anything for Marika."
And he would. Even if it meant isolating himself, here, at the edge of the world.
The cursed boy looked up at him silently. Pleading.
"Very well."
Reaching behind his back, Maliketh drew forth his black blade in all its flawless glory. A flick of his wrist sheathed it halfway in the floor of the Beast Sanctum; exposing a modicum of glimmering darkness, a void that drank in all light, its shimmering surface so clean one could glimpse their own reflection in its polished edge.
"I shall allow thee to look upon Destined Death, young Miquella." he held it there, gripping the hilt in hand. "Though I know not what you can gain from seeing such a thing. If you go mad, I shall slay you."
Miquellea leaned in, eyes wide, gazing upon his reflection within.
"Thanks." He ran his hands over the perfect blade. "This means more to me than you know, uncle...
Uncle? Malekith blinked once at that. Uncle. The word ignited an odd feeling in Malekith's chest. It was...not an unpleasant feeling. Perhaps it would not be so bad then, to have a visitor every one in awhile.
"It has been...a long while since someone called me that."
Miquella wasn't listening. Or perhaps he was, but he simply chose not to respond.
He'd long since laid his head against Destined Death and closed his eyes, the better to commune with into the black blade...
(.0.0.0.)
Naruto opened his eyes to the deepest of darkness.
Malekith was gone, and the Beast Sanctum with him. Only his spirit remained in the void...
.
..
...no, that wasn't quite right.
He blinked and reality unspooled around him. He could see stars in the dark, pinpricks of distant light stretching across a greater galaxy. The very cosmos itself unfolded before his eyes. It was beauty. It was grace. It was Order. Cause and Effect. Life and Death itself, yet also more somehow, not unfettered by banal things such as mortality and. A desire for power. Influence. Strength.
Realization struck him a a moment later and with it, dread. He'd dug too deep. Reached too far.
Destined Death was a shard of the Elden Ring. The Elden Ring was connected to the Elden Beast. And the Elden Beast was the vassal of...
An awful burning presence brushed against his mind, fingers like ice locking around his psyche.
A sonorous voice rattled the void around him. "Who seeks Destined Death?"
...the Greater Will.
Not through the Two Fingers, not through Marika, or any of that. He'd unwittingly-and accidentally-opened a direct channel to the Outer God in its entirety. He couldn't even see it properly; it existed as a glowing shapeless light in his vision, formless and yet holding every form he could possibly conceive.
"I ask again, who seeks Destined Death?"
Yet for all that, it didn't seem omniscient. Nor did it know his true thoughts.
...I do." he grit his teeth. The plan had changed. He'd have to adjust accordingly. "My name is-
"Naruto Uzumaki." the Great Will interjected curtly, shattering his words. Light flashed and his spirit shifted, regaining its former shape. "Once a shinobi-now-reincarnated as Miquella. Son of Marika. Demigod. Cursed. Child of the vessel. You are known. Your purpose is not. What is your purpose here?"
If Kurama had been here beside him, he would've kicked him right about now. The Greater Will might not know about his partner, but it clearly knew who he was! Or did it simply not care...?
Screw it. Nothing to lose now. "I've come to bargain."
A pause. The light dimmed. This time, its question was tinged with confusion. "What...is your purpose here?"
"I'm here to offer a trade." he held up a pale arm, willing himself not to flinch in the face of such divine scrutiny. "You're a god. You know things."
He felt a flicker of indignation from what passed for the Greater Will. "Nothing is beyond our reach."
Arrogance. I can use that. He pounced on it with a grin. "Then you can cure Malenia."
...perhaps."
"Awfully evasive answer, coming from a self-proclaimed god-ow!" Pain spiked through his head, drawing a snarl from him. "Ha!" He grit his teeth against it with a grin and barreled on. "You can't do it, can you?" The silence was answer enough. "Aren't you supposed to be all powerful?"
"She is afflicted by our sister, just as you have been cursed by our brother. Such hexes are not so easily undone."
Despair crashed down on him in a terrible wave. His hopes threatened to drown with it. If even a god couldn't purify Malenia's from the Scarlet Rot, then why was he wasting his time here? For a moment he'd thought this would be easy, that he'd accidentally found a way out of this hell for him and his sister. It was not to be.
He turned on one heel. "In that case, I rescind my offer. We have nothing more to discuss. I'll be leaving now...
"Wait."
He paused, looked over his shoulder.
Beneath his gaze the light swayed. Almost as if it were flustered.
"We said such cannot be easily undone. Never did we deem it impossible. We would hear your bargain."
He made his offer. The Greater Will listened to him.
...curious." it said at last. "You would trade so much for her sake?"
Naruto set his jaw, refusing to reveal his intentions anymore than he already had. "More than you know."
"We shall make you a counteroffer." the light swarmed in, pushing so close he found himself squinting against it."Your mother seeks to supplant us. We are not blind to her schemes, nor the rebellion she prepares. When the time comes, when her treachery is revealed, you will supplant her and take the Elden Ring unto yourself."
"..."
"Do this, swear yourself to us, and we shall aid you; both in saving your sister and yourself." the very air shook with the weight of their words. "What say you?"
Ice lodged in his throat. "You're asking me to turn on my family. My mother."
"She will turn on you first."
He frowned. "She won't do that."
"Yes. She will. We have foreseen it."
"I won't kill her."
"We did not ask such. When she turns, her punishment shall be more...severe."
...I'll believe it when I see it. What's in it for me besides curing Malenia?"
Before his eyes, the Greater Will's light dimmed. Shrank.
Resolved itself into proper form as he looked on. Substance. Shape.
In place of that once burning radiance searing the cosmos, he found himself face-to-face with a shapely young woman wrapped in a tight shift. Gloam-blue eyes dark enough to nearly be black gazed back at him beneath long lashes, framed by long flowing midnight tresses veined with the golden stars of the very cosmos. As if her hair were cut from the sky itself. She looked ageless. Eternal. Not a day a day over twenty at worst. Her little smile, however, held the eternity of eons gone by. There was an ageless grace to it, yet also an unsettling hunger lurking within; a desire for power and influence he found himself shying away from.
"She" clasped both hands behind herself and leaned forward. It did fascinating things to her bosom. "We offer ourselves."
Naruto's throat went dry. "Come again?"
"You would be our god-consort, your curse broken at the moment of your ascension." The Greater Will's avatar barreled on, heedless of his discomfort. "All of the Lands Between would be ours to shape as we please, our descendants more numerous than the very stars themselves."
Tempting. She was offering him an easy way out.
"Are you not satisfied?" though her voice lacked its earlier timber, carrying only the faintest of echoes, he found it attractive still. "We chose a terminal for ourselves so that we might better communicate with you; one we believed your current form would find pleasing." A coy smile flitted across her cherubic face. "Shall we change it, perhaps?" she cupped her chest, considering her bosom with a detached air. "Would you prefer someone better endow-
"Stop, stop!" Naruto flung up a hand, cutting her off. "I get the picture. Why offer me this?"
"Because we wish to WIN!" Rage flashed across the Greater Will's face as eyes gleamed with flecks of gold, a rare fracture slipping through her facade. "The Lands Between are OURS, yet we find ourselves set upon by all sides by our kin!" her fists balled at her sides, spitting sparks as she raged on. "They shall not have it! No! Nay! Never! We will not abandon what is ours!" Those keen orbs narrowed upon him to pin him in place. "We will have your answer now. Choose wisely; this is not an offer we shall make again."
Damned if he did, damned if he didn't.
"I accept...
Triumph blazed across her face.
...but only if you treat me as an equal!"
"E...qual?" A blink. Two, now. Followed by three as she tilted her head. "What is the meaning of this word?"
"Seriously?" he palmed his face. "You're kidding, right? You don't know what it means?!"
"We thought that went without saying."
Arrogant little snot. More and more, he got the feeling the "Greater Will" really wasn't so great at all. Perhaps she was simply lesser than her siblings; like a young child trying to cling onto a toy that everyone else wanted. He might've found it funny if the Lands Between -and all the lives within!- didn't happen to be said toy.
He told her. She squinted at him.
"Curious. We see not the harm in it. However...
The Greater Will was silent for a long moment. Then she whirled.
Firm hands grasped him by the shoulders.
Warm lips pressed against his.
"The bargain is struck." She pulled away with a smile, leaving him dumbstruck. "The pact sealed. Knowest now the truth thy seeketh."
Two fingers touched Naruto's forehead.
Light swarmed in.
And he saw.
(.0.0.0.)
Malekith watched Miquella for a sign.
Watched, as seconds ticked on into minutes, then an hour now. He almost pitied the boy.
To stare into Destined Death was to gaze into the abyss itself. But when one gazed long into the abyss, the abyss often gazed long into them in return. It promised knowledge and power, but at a price. Many a brave fool had gone mad under doing so. Such was the true nature of Death. One could not simply "remove" it from the equation as it were, though Marika had made a fine attempt. Death was a concept. A constant, a pillar upon which the Lands Between stood. It was fair to all, mortal or god. All died equally. Even the Golden Order would not last forever.
"Heh." Miquella leaned back and chuckled suddenly, eyes half-lidded. "I see. So that's how it is...! How did I miss this?! Its all so simple!"
He hid another laugh behind his palm, shoulders shaking as he clamored to his feet. Mirth spilled out of him. He tilted his head back and grinned at the full moon. Malekith watched him keenly, wary for the telltale signs of insanity that often followed when looking up Destined Death. Such were often instant, but the boy seemed sane...for now. No more laughter followed beyond that first faint giggle.
The silence that followed was eerie.
"Do you still have your wits about you?" he tightened his grip upon the Black Blade. "Or have you gone mad?"
"I don't feel mad." Miquella craned his neck, producing an awful crack. "I just understood something that I didn't before. Thanks for this." he clasped both hands together and bowed his head, bending deep at the waist to better convey his appreciation. "You've given me an idea. I just don't know if I have the strength to do it, yet." Mournful eyes met his. "Will you help me?"
No one had ever asked him for help before. It humbled Maliketh more than words.
...if that is your wish. I suppose I could let you linger a little longer.
Miquella granted him a small, sad smile in return.
...sorry, we have a funeral to attend."
(.0.0.0.)
The funeral was a miserable thing indeed.
Naruto saw no need to sugarcoat it, nor did he particularly desire to; it was a bitter affair that took place in the late afternoon. Dark clouds loomed large overhead in an equally overcast sky, ready to burst at the slightest provocations. He suspected it would rain any moment now. Beneath the Erdtree's light, assembled before the Thrones, they watched the ceremony grind on and on seemingly without end.
Censers paraded about with their staves and incense, bringing with it an awful acrid smell he couldn't stand. Smoke swirled through the air, thick and cloying to fall upon two black coffins holding the remains of the fallen -Rykard and Morgott!- each sealed shut by powerful spells. There wasn't enough of them to have an open casket ceremony. He'd seen their remains. A somber reminder of just how truly fleeting live could be. Death was supposed to be an impossibility for the Demigods, yet here they lay, two of their number slain, the rest of them dressed in black to mourn their passing.
Ranni had been silent as the grave since they'd come back and he couldn't much blame her. This was her brother.
Even Radahn was uncharacteristically quiet.
And Rennala...
He didn't look at the weeping woman. He absolutely did not dare.
Malenia grabbed his hand and nestled a little closer to him. Her actions drew a sharp look from Radagon. Naruto glared back into their "father" looked away, which in turn gave him a chance to consider the coffin anew. He hadn't been friends with Rykard. Honestly, he hated him. Even so he hadn't wished for his death. Morgott...that was a shame. No one should lose a brother. Not even a twisted creature like Mohg.
"Oi." Kurama tugged at his arm. "We need to have a talk."
Naruto shook him off, not looking back. "Not now."
His partner subsided with a sigh.
Marika -Mom!- was the most solemn of them all. Grave in her gown, a black veil of mourning drawn low across her regal visage. She approached the coffins slowly. Each step seemed to take an eternity. When she finally reached them, she almost seemed to sag before their eyes. Pausing between them, she laid a hand on each coffin, fingers tracing the black lacquer. She seemed so miserable in this moment. He couldn't even imagine the idea of her turning against them. None dared approach her for fear of inciting her wrath, not even Maliketh.
He could sense the old wolf lurking only feet behind the back, shunned by the others. He still didn't understand why they feared him.
Malenia didn't. Neither did he. Yet none came near them...
Why?
"We gather here today, to mourn." Marika's voice rang out among them, clear as a clarion bell. "Two lives cut short. Silenced, before their time. We shall find the one who did this, and we shall end him. But first...we must bid farewell."
Ranni went first.
One by one, each stepped forward to lay hands upon the coffins. Some laid flowers. Others, small tokens he didn't recognize.
Naruto lingered at the end with Malenia, approaching last.
Rykard's coffin was cold under his hand. Morgott's, moreso. He couldn't bring himself to say anything to either. Neither did Malenia.
The deed done, Marika raised a hand.
"Now we consign them to the depths." her hand waved anew, laying a wreath upon Morgott's coffin. "May their spirits slumber peacefully, nestled against the roots of the Erdtree.
The very earth trembled underfoot. Naruto shrank back.
Roots rose around the coffins as she spoke; long and slender things to claim them. Erdtree burial was supposedly a great honor, granted only to a select few. Naruto couldn't help but be disgusted by it. Why would anyone want their spirit to languish in the roots of a tree? Watching them be dragged down didn't sit well with him. Better to burn and soar in the sky.
Malenia leaned against him, her head resting against his shoulder.
"I never want to go like that." He didn't miss the tremble in her voice. "When I go, burn me. Set me free. Don't leave me trapped in the dark."
Priscilla nodded her agreement, and Blaidd with her. To even agree with such was blasphemy. It was a sign of everyone's grief that no one challenged them.
Down the coffins went, dragged to the depths.
Ranni stepped up to them. Naruto tugged her close, letting her head rest against his chest as he pulled her close.
Still the coffins sunk. The sight was too much for Rennala. She fell to her knees with an awful wail.
Here at last the heavens opened up and released their bounty. Rain slashed down from the grief stricken sky, soaking them through, as though the gods themselves were mourning today's loss. Naruto knew better. The gods didn't care about them. They never had.
And he'd just made a deal with the strangest of them all.
Time would tell if it was the right choice or not.
..but how much time did he have left?
A/N: Aaaaand scene. Didn't see that coming, did you?
Pairing's still very much up in the air here, so lemme know what you think.
Do you want this to be continued? Yes? No? Maybe so? Make yourselves heard! By all means, let me know!
Once more, we're sticking with the "Embers" rule for this particular story, and others. If folks don't like this, it won't be continued. Meaning that if the story itself ain't popular? POOF! Gone. Completely. I'm working two jobs -might need a third soon!- so I barely have time to write; as such, I cannot afford to write something folks don't enjoy. So by all means, speak up! Your voice matters! Make yourself heard! As ever, reviews are the fuel that sustain me. Without them I cannot write a single word. Simple as that. Working nearly all hours of the day keep me absurdly busy, and I can't bring myself to write something folks don't like.
Aaaand there we go. As ever, reviews keep me alive. Without them, I cannot write. So...in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review...Would You Kindly? Mostly the same previews this time.
Gotta keep ya guessing.
(Previews)
Time flew by.
The Greater Will crossed one leg over the other. "Can I not visit your dreams?"
"Please don't use that needle on me."
"It'll just hurt for a second.
Malenia whimpered.
Malenia readied her blade. "Are you prepared?"
"For you to knock me around? Probably not. Have at it, then."
"Not going to stay?"
Radahn clapped him on the shoulder. "Whomever you choose...be good to them."
He'd created life from death. Fascinating.
"What is your purpose here?"
The Rot howled at him, thrashing in his grasp.
Naruto only smiled. "That's right. Put up a fight. Won't make a damn difference. You think you can eat my sister? No...I'M GONNA EAT YOU."
R&R~!